Romania vs Ukraine Euro 2024 Prediction: Who will get off to a great start in Group E? | OneFootball

A clash between two proud Eastern European nations begind proceedings in Group E, but will Romania or Ukraine get a big help towards qualification from the group?

Romania vs Ukraine Euro 2024 Prediction: Who will get off to a great start in Group E?

Romania vs Ukraine Latest Prediction

Ukraine are the second-highest ranked team in Group E, but had to qualify via a two-round play-off, whereas Romania topped their group. There is a lot of complicated form lines to work out ahead of this clash.

We’ll also have more tips here closer to the time so make sure you check back closer to kick off for all of our best tips and predictions.

Romania and Ukraine open their Euro 2024 accounts on June 17 in Munich with both hoping to get off to a positive start in what looks like an evenly matched group for 2nd or potentially 3rd place.

Romania surprised a few people by topping their quaification group. It is the first time that Tricolorii have topped any qualification group for a major tournament since Euro 2008, and only their second qualification for any tournament since that date having also qualified for Euro 2016. However, Romania haven’t won a match in the final stages of a major tournament since Euro 2000, when a last-gasp penalty saw them qualify for the quarter-finals at England’s expense.

This is Ukraine’s fourth straight qualification for the European Championships. They qualified from the group in Euro 2020, eventually reaching the quarter-finals where they lost 0-4 to England in Rome. Despite the result, this classes as Ukraine’s best major tournament result since the World Cup in 2006 where they also reached the quarter-finals. They haven’t managed to qualify for a World Cup since then though.

Romania Latest Team News

There are high hopes in Romania that they have a group of players that will lead them out of the doldrums that they have been in since the glory days of Romanian football in the 1990s. That team of Gheorghe Hagi, Dan Petrescu, Gheorghe Popescu et.al. reached the quarter-finals of the 1994 World Cup, as well as qualifying for every major tournament for a decade.

This new generation will be at their peak over the next few years with most of the players in their mid-to-late 20s, so they are not young, but they just have that level of experience where they could be ready to kick on. There is no real major star either, with Radu Dragusin, recently moved to Tottenham Hotspur (a la Popescu and Dimitrescu of the 1990s) probably the one who is closest to fitting that bill.

The attack will be led by former Reading striker George Puskas, with support from Rangers man, currently on loan at Alaves, Ianis Hagi (son of Gheorghe), Olimpiu Morutan, and captain Nicolae Stanciu.

Goalkeeper Horatiu Moldovan signed for Atletico Madrid in January, but has yet to make his La Liga debut. The midfield and defence is solid, but with no real standout quality, bar Dragusin.

Ukraine Latest Team News

Ukraine had a particularly tough qualification group with England and Italy. To qualify for this finals was a good achievement given the circumstances of the group, but also the ongoing conflict at home.

Ukraine have an exciting group of attacking players, many of whom are young and in good or better form. Indeed, many of the players have become household names in the UK due to playing in the Premier League. Oleksandr Zinchenko has patrolled the left flank of the Premier League’s best for a decade or so, but the Ukraine captain is deployed in midfield for his country, which allows Everton’s Vitaly Mykolenko to bomb up and down the left.

Mykailo Mudryk is a big goal threat with his pace, Viktor Tsygankov has been the provider extraordinaire for Girona’s surprise La Liga title bid, where he has a great partnership with Artem Dovbyk, who leads the Pichichi standings in Spain at the time of writing.

Georgiy Sudakov and Illya Zabarnyi have made superb starts to their careers as well, and at only 21, they are the future of this team moving forwards. Indeed, there is a good mix of experience and exciting youth in this Ukraine squad. Even the goalkeepers have strength in depth with Bushchan, the former #1, making way for both Andriy Lunin, currently excelling for Real Madrid, and Benfica’s #1 Anatoliy Trubin.

Romania vs Ukraine Head to Head

There have been six meetings between these countries, but none of them have been in competitive international play. Romania won the first three friendlies, but Ukraine have won the last three, However, the countries haven’t met at all since 2016, so much of the history is irrelevant for this tie.

How to watch Romania vs Ukraine Live

Group E sees Romania take on Ukraine at Munich Arena on June 17 and all of the action will be live on BBC One and BBC iPlayer, as well as online on the BBC website.

Every game at Euro 2024 will be shown live on either BBC or ITV, with the two platforms sharing the broadcast rights.